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Alien Resurrection (Collector's Edition)

Alien Resurrection (Collector's Edition)

List Price: $26.98
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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: A spoof on the ALIEN movies, or a real sequel?
Review: Two hundred years after ALIEN 3, ELLEN RIPLEY (Sigourney Weaver) is cloned, along with the alien specimen inside of her. After retrieving the little monster, more and more aliens are produced, and RIPLEY awakens. As a starship crew lands on the spacecraft, the aliens become smart and break out of their cages. This time, with weaponry, the humans struggle to battle the vicious creatures, but there is something bigger, something stronger, something more deadly. With RIPLEY being a human alien herself, she is the mama, and must choose between her human friends, and her own family- being the aliens.

MY REVIEW:

"If you think this is a fourth installment of the ALIEN series, you are correct. The only thing I'm going to point out, is that it is a spoof-like adventure movie. The acting was bad, the alien effects were bad, the story sucks and watching it can annoy you, especially listening to WINONA RYDER being foul at the mouth. ALIEN 4 should've been much more adventrous, scary, good with effects (like ALIENS), and better with the way RIPLEY came back. If there is a fifth ALIEN movie, let's hope it is a good one like the first two.

Now let's talk about the end- IT IS HORRIBLE. [....] Well, I think this about raps up my review. ALIEN RESURRECTION is a waste of time, and is just an odd way to continue the ALIEN movies.

"Rent it, but do not have high hopes because you're practically wasting one hundred-five minutes."- MJV & the Movies.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Could have been made MUCH better
Review: My title says it all. The movie had very good concepts, but managed to spoil every one by trying to rush the movie along its two hour time track. Yes, it had weapons, fighting, blood, and aliens creeping up on people, but it lacked the depth that made the first three alien movies so good. It tried too hard to take bits and pieces that fall into the standard alien look-and-feel and cobbled them together into a 4th movie. Little or no character development, and no time was invested in developing a background that could snare the interest of a new generation of movie goers. In other words no passion.

Yes, I include the 3rd movie in the list of good ones. The focus of the 3rd was not action (which dissapointed many) but tragety, hardship, and perseverence instead. I think it conveyed those concepts successfully, and provided excellent acting. It also gave people who loved the first two a sense of finality, which really makes the 4th film hard to like. There are many hidden subtleties in the 3rd movie that most people overlook. Too bad.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: 4th in a classic
Review: This is actually an alright film. At least it's not as bad as alien3. If your new to this series i recomend watching the first two. The second one is the best.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not the best, but certainly not the worst!!!!!
Review: This addition to the Alien Series clearly is not the best, Aliens by far and away deserves that title, but it is also not the worst. That dubious distinction rightly belongs to Alien 3. Granted, this film does not flow with the rest of movies as the other three do, like picking up where the previous film left off. Also granted, the general feel and theme of Alien Resurrection is somewhat of a anti-climax to the series, especially with the final Blended Alien. Hopefully they will make Alien 5. Hopefully then we can find out where the Aliens orginially come from, something all four movies never make mention of.

Now, let's get something straight. Many reviewers seem to feel that this film is a "wacky side story" to the rest of the series. They say that the film is to full of ideas that are too hard to accept, even in the "Alien Universe". One thing is that Ripley is alive again, even though she died in Alien 3. THIS IS NOT A HARD CONCEPT TO UNDERSTAND!!!!! She was CLONED for crying out loud!!!!! How hard is that to understand?! This movie might not jive prefectly with the others, but that is that because of stupid little problems like this. It is mostly because the story is set two hundred years after Alien 3 and does not pick up "right" where that movie left off.

Many people feel this is the worst Alien film. However, I cannot see that. Alien 3 is hands down the worst of the series. What with its opressive unhappiness and death theme, how could people not see it that way? Granted, it does have its strong points, such as Charles Dutton, the fact that we finally see the Alien grow after it bursts out of its host, and the fact that it is shown that the Alien's makeup differs with different kinds of hosts. At least Alien Resurrection returns us to the "action" feel of Aliens and Alien.

In order from best to worst, here is how I would rank the Alien movies: ALIENS, for it just blew me away; ALIEN, the first is always one of the best and the suspense is non-stop; ALIEN RESURRECTION, it brings back some of the feel and flavor of the first two movies after the less-than-glowing ALIEN 3; ALIEN 3, too dark and uncomfortable for my tastes, even as Alien movies go.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Save a Classic. Don't See This.
Review: There are movies in our life that we all think should have never been made. I thought Alien 3 was one of them until I saw this one. This is by far junk meant to cash in on a franchise that should have died with the original Ripley in the lead foundry at the end of Alien 3. Honestly folks, lets chat about how bad the concept was.

The bad guy corporation was able to recover enough DNA from the burning lead to develop both a Ridley and an Alien. Okay whatever. Then pixie Ryder turns out to be a super android-great.

There are so many ways that this sucks, and I think there is no finer pair of SCI FI movies outside Star War and Empire than Alien and Aliens. This movie just hurts to watch because you realize that once again Hollywood has to find someway to separate you from your money; don't fall pray. Go buy the first two. Curl up with you signifgant other and polish of a big bowl of popcorn. Buy those classics before you spoil them by seeing this film.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: ...
Review: Even one star is too much for this movie. This movie should be erased from history and should not be counted as "an Alien" flick. I'm a huge fan of the other three movies which where excellent, mainly because the approach was serious and the settings were very realistic. Acting was serious and well executed in those movies. Tension was everywhere because thanks to the realism it didn't take much to imagine you were right there alongside of them, living the nightmare. We were all satisfied with ripley passing away in part three, which concluded a brilliant trilogy. Then comes the "made solely to make dollars out of a good name" fourth episode called resurrection....

1. The characters look like comicbook/graffiti characters (for crying out loud!). I mean,this is a serious trilogy , full of totally believable characters! You just can't come up with some Fifth Element look cause it totally lacks credibility which is important in the saga.

2. The weapons were also comicbook/graffiti style(!) and looked ancient and very,very fake and almost cardboardlike. They fell completely out of place.

3. "The company" that was sneakily trying to get a sample of the alien back to Earth was supposed to be a huge corporation, and had influence in just about anything you could imagine(We caught a glimpse of them in part3), so you'd guess the leader would look like the American president at least. But jeunet and his resurrection didn't think so, nope the company would be represented by an incredibly stupid Military guy, who couldn't even pass for a simple grunt.

4. The humor was a tumor. I mean where the previous Alien movies had a very subtle and dark approach to the humor, Resurrection brings us the "Police Academy" kind of humor, the sort of humor that makes Bob Saget, presenting America's Funniest Home videos, look funny.

5. the Aliens suddenly behave like the raptor's as seen in "Jurassic Park".

6. The Alien queen gives birth to her new spawn in the most laughable human way. I mean c'mon, how insane can you make it? To make an insectlike organism give birth like a human woman?

7. The computer generated Aliens look very fake indeed, as if they were pasted into the screens later on, carrying a misty aura around them, easily betraying their CGI origin.

8. The Aliens were tamed like pets!!!!

9. Perhaps needless to say but I will say it anyway: Lack of tension and atmosphere.

....There you have it and I don't think there will be a single true "Alien" fan on this planet who doesn't agree on that.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Definitely the poorest of the series...
Review: I'm sorry, but I grew up with the Alien series from the time I was little. When I was 8, a friend brought over "Aliens" and we watched it with a large group of friends. I was hooked from then on, and have always held an affinity for the series. "Alien", "Aliens", and "Alien 3" were all superb instances of sci-fi horror, made even better if one has read the comic series produced by Dark Horse (which I have). "Alien Resurrection", however, takes all that made this series good and throws it away.

"Alien Resurrection" is quite possibly the poorest movie I have seen, a fact that is made worse by the superb quality of the previous three (though some may disagree on the quality of "Alien 3"). The characters aren't interesting, the Aliens aren't really all that creepy, and the "new" Ripley is just dumb. My biggest complaint of all, and many purists would agree, is that they constantly show the Aliens moving around the ship. What made the first three films great is the fact that you really didn't know where the Aliens were until the big climax at the end. This film traipses the Aliens across the screen for what seems like forever, ruining the suspense of the unknown. How can something surprise you if you know where it is?

I won't say this film doesn't have its good moments; the scene as the soldiers attempt to evacuate their doomed ship is particularly well-done. The evil scientist's fate in the hive is particularly nice too, despite the idiocy of the altered hive-queen that follows.

I wouldn't recommend this film to anyone who loved the first films. Instead I would say to read the excellent comic series and buy the first films. "Alien Resurrection" is a waste.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Wait for Alien 5.
Review: I am bordering on the chances of this film being saved by Alien 5. As it is, it stands alone, as a strange branch that does nothing for the first three, but starts the potential for a future set. At the moment I would say it's worth watching but only as a standard "blockbuster" style action film. The only familiar characters (while a bit modified) are the aliens, since Ripley has totally changed. I would have liked to see this film receive a great deal more in the way of improvements however. Why have the guy with superhuman shooting abilities? Why have the aliens so easy to kill? Why have the spaces so open, taking away any sense of suspense? Why not tidy up the science? Why not improve the script, and clean up the acting? Why not have more POINT to the android character being there? I could go on.

P>Let's have a new film, please! A sequel to save this! Let's not end it on this potentially sour note!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Spectacular return
Review: I have to admit to being stupefied by the level of hostility aimed at Alien Resurrection in some of these reviews. True, there were flaws, but in my opinion the bonuses so greatly outweighed them that I was able to forgive them for the most part. Oddly enough, it seems to me that with just a little more attention the plot problems could have been easily solved--why put the crew of the Betty in a situation where they are able to sneak weapons aboard a military vehicle in spite of being searched by both man and machine? Why introduce a character whose shooting skills are superhuman--better in my view not to put the characters in situations where that kind of escape is needed (like avoiding Rambo-esque characters need to avoid outrunning machinegun bullets, one of my pet peeves). And why have the bad science--acid eating through inert glass, the entire "genetic memory" bit is completely bogus (knowing how to fly a spaceship is not contained within one's DNA!), it is very questionable as to whether Ripley's blood sample would contain any alien DNA, and a vaccum strong enough to suck a very large object through a tiny hole is not strong enough to suck out all the air in the compartment, killing those left behind?

In spite of these crudities, though, there was much to recommend in Alien Resurrection. In general I'm not a fan of sequels--in fact I hated Aliens (Alien 2)--because all too often they simply rehash the same story, the same characters both good and bad, the same sets and special effects, etc. But Alien Resurrection twists the Alien series in a unique way. We get plenty of the familiar but updated superbly--the alien is back, redesigned to move somewhat differently and a bit sleeker, the face-huggers and chestburster make cameos, the queen returns with a much more terrifying mouth, and of course Ripley is back again, this time as a human/alien hybrid, colder, less compassionate and more distant, much harder to empathise with. Special effects are more than superb, as is a consistent hallmark of the series. The new creature, and the hybrids 1-7 (the most harrowing scene in the film!) are spectacularly monstrous. The crew of the Betty, especially Winona Ryder as the new empathetic character Annalee Call, Ron Perlman as Crewman Johner, Dominique Pinon as the wheelchair-bound Chief Mechanic Vriess, and a very brief appearance by Michael Wincott (who recently stole the show as Gary Soneji in Along Came a Spider), are a superbly cast lot of misfits seemingly as alien as the creatures themselves. The film revels in the quirky, too; with the casting of Dan Hedaya as General Perez, in the camera shot down the throat of a "cannon-fodder" character, and in Brad Dourif's eerie mugging with the alien. Some viewers might well have found these touches distracting, but they gave a real sense of individuality from director Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Some critics have decried the film as simply a chase through empty rooms in which aliens occassionally pop up, but it was so much more than that--the film was an exploration of the interplay of relationships between characters, and between characters and aliens, which was far more than just kill or be killed. It has always been noteworthy that the Corporation is as inhuman as the creatures; but now the creatures are more human, with jealousies, erotic drives, planning, revenge, teamwork, murder, and natural childbirth(!); while the humans are more physically alien than ever before. Ultimately it is probably that Alien Resurrection delivered something unexpected, with subtleties beyond the typical Hollywood sequel fare, that has led to the number of unfavorable reviews. But for me, it was not only the best of the series (at least since the first) but unquestionably one of the best horror films yet made. Most highly recommended.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A Great direction to go after Alien 3
Review: There are more than a few people out there that don't follow this radically different take on the Alien series. And that's kinda too bad as I would have liked to see the sequel to this one. Alien 3 trashed the series and like the title promises, I think Alien Ressurection did a pretty good job of creating something new out of the wreckage that was Alien 3. If you loved the first two movies and hoped to see a replay. You are going on an entirely different ride. Alien 3 was a cynical take on the saga that was brooding and dark but without the heart of the first two films. While the first two films leave us with hope for the future. Alien 3 left us with nothing but emptiness and a cheap death for Ripley. Alien 4 says, "Hey, this series can never be the same now. But it was rife with great ideas when it was destroyed. Lets take what's left, let our imaginations run wild and explore every possibility." To appreciate Alien Ressurection you have to have at least a remote appreciation of the modern comic book and japanese anime. Alien Ressurection invests heavily in these two traditions by building bigger than life characters with simple motivations and complex personal histories. The characters are the kind comic people like. Mercenaries with guns and gravely voices, Evil genetic scientists, pretty female androids, and a genetically-engineered Ripley built with alien DNA. Everyone is tough. Everyone has an edge or an angle. The film is one story but plays out like several issues of a comic. It starts with one neat idea, then plays it out building to a big climactic revelation that leads you on to new territory you look forward to exploring. This movie is eye and mind candy and if your sci fi lovin' personality falls under my umbrella. Alien Ressurection hits a couple bumps but covers a lot of territory that have you thinking..."this is a kinda cool ride."


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